30 August 2006
    

August links


I’m not doing the semi-regular search term roundup this month (scroll down to Aug. 1 for July’s list). This month it’s: Links From The Long Tail.

Here’s how it works: Every month my stats page provides a list of websites that link to shopliftwindchimes.com, and the number of hits the link got. Some sites, especially the big ones, send a lot of hits this way. Some sites…don’t. So here, for the first time ever, are My Top 10 Favorite Websites Whose Link To Me Got 5 Hits Or Less In August.

Some of these people have gemutlich things to say, and their Web etiquette is stellar, so go give ‘em some love, if you like. But don’t click on the shopliftwindchimes link, if you can find it. That’ll just send you back here. Plus–it’ll show up on my stats page and technically knock them off this list, now won’t it?

1. www.torontopoetryslam.com
2.http://ampt.typepad.com/annmaries_blog/poetry.html
3. www.orbitme.blogspot.com
4. http://vasta.typepad.com/main/2006/07/rives_at_the_to.html
5. www.donkeysclubhouse.blogspot.com
6. www.escambia.k12.fl.us/instres/langarts/Inservice.htm
7. http://www.truetalkblog.com/truetalk/poetically_sing.html
8. www.sapo/0830.08/subridebis.html
9. www.blogto.com/arts/slammin_night_at_the_drake/
10. www.dance.net/Poetry/Just-wanted-to-share-this-author.html



28 August 2006
    
haiku: go.


22 August 2006
    

Oh, but THIS GIG is gonna wreck it right too…



21 August 2006
    

Another Austin highlight goes online…


…and thanks to everyone who asked about this or brought it to my attention.

Yeah, so: last week in Texas I got a chance to perform with underground hip-hop firebrand Sage Francis at a crazed show at Emo’s. In the middle of his set, Sage threw a CD release showcase for my good buddy Buddy Wakefield, and I sat in on harmonica for their final number together, Sage’s ultra-downloadable “Jah Didn’t Kill Johnny".


What’s it like backstage at a packed club, seconds before you have to join two beefy, amped-up maniacs onstage? Turns out—I made a little video at the time, and I guess I don’t mind sharing. Click the “Emo’s” pic for the flick (20 seconds). That’s Mr. Wakefield getting hyper on the mic, if you can make it out.


And this being 2006, the actual performace from that night is available on the Web. Just click on the album cover for a link to YouTube.com. If you’re looking for me, I’m wailing away to Sage’s left, but I only come out for flash bulbs…

Holler at ya boy.



16 August 2006
    

Seven Favorites in Austin, Texas
at the 2006 National Poetry Slam

7. The car ride with (PROPER NOUN).

6. Sneaking into (PLACE) with (PROPER NOUN).

5. Meeting (PROPER NOUN) for the (ORDINAL NUMBER) time. (You should email me.)

4. Talking eye-to-eye outside of (PLACE) with (PROPER NOUN).

3. (GERUND) (PROPER NOUN).

2. Getting kicked out of (PLACE) with (PROPER NOUN).

1. Watching (PROPER NOUN) (VERB) the (SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVE) (NOUN) I’ve ever been a part of.



08 August 2006
    

8th Street at Astor Place; 25th and Broadway.



07 August 2006
    


As long as your brain’s guess about the next word turns out to be right, you cruise along happily, left to right, left to right, turning black squiggles into ideas, scenes, characters and concepts, blissfully unaware that your brain is predicting the future of the sentences at a fantastic rate. It is only when your brain predicts badly that you suddenly feel avocado.

—Daniel Gilbert, “Stumbling on Happiness” (2006)



05 August 2006
    

Panhandle

 

QUESTION: Which of the following is an official nickname of Pensacola, Fla.?

A) “City of Five Flags”
B) “World’s Whitest Beaches”
C) “I Was Only There for Half a Day”
D) “Western Gate to the Sunshine State”
E) “America’s First Settlement”
F) “Cradle of Naval Aviation”
G) “The Nickname City”
H) “The Red Snapper Capital of the World”

ANSWER: A, B, D, E, F and H



02 August 2006
    

If digital photography didn’t exist, this is one of the prints from my Toronto trip ten days ago that I would just now be getting back from a photo developer, possibly located beside a tanning salon.

(And I would be reminded of the Chinese Lantern Festival and how, when all the lights switched off at midnight, sharp, I was reminded of this short story I adored when I was seventeeen.)



01 August 2006
    

July Search Terms

This is the latest installment of what is now a semi-regular feature of this space. ("Semi-regular” meaning I skipped it in June, readers complained, and the whole mishanter tore me up inside.)

Anyway, here are my 14 favorite Search Terms That Users Typed Into Search Engines, According To My Stats Page, To Wind Up At My Site:

14. “smiley face wind chimes”
13. “historical castaway”
12. “who was magolwane?”
11. “because they were bunnies kite”
10. “mister fluffy gourmet cotton candy”
9. “birthday of rives poet”
8. “turtles humping”
7. “the meaning of yangari”
6. “how to build a squirrel house”
5. “twinkie cycling jersey”
4. “mockingbird trap”
3. “feminine itch”
2. “eerie lackawanna”

and my favorite-of-the-month search term:

1. “what is the googolplex of a waterfalls?”